BY GODWIN IJEDIOGOR
TWO Vietnam-bound businessmen, Ibeanusi Solomon Nosike and Paul Okwuy Mbadugha have excreted a total of 156 wraps of cocaine after days of excretion observation.
While Nosike excreted 68 wraps, Mbadugha excreted 88 wraps.
Nosike was arrested at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos State, by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), while Mbadugha was apprehended at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) in Abuja..
According to a statement by the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Mr. Femi Babafemi, the 36-year-old Ibeanusi was arrested in the early hours of Thursday, August 8, at the old domestic terminal of the airport while attempting to board the first flight out of Lagos to Abuja, where he was scheduled to join a Qatar Airways flight to Vietnam at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, about 10am the same day.
The suspect, who came under NDLEA surveillance following intelligence, had arrived Lagos from his base in Onitsha, the previous day, August 7, and lodged in a hotel, where he swallowed the 68 wraps of cocaine before heading to the airport for a 6:30am flight the following morning.
He was thereafter intercepted by NDLEA operatives, who moved him into excretion observation, where he spent the next 12 days excreting the cocaine pellets, weighing 1.282 kilogrammes.
Mbadugha, 54, was arrested by operatives at the Abuja Airport on Monday, August 12, during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432 to Hanoi, Vietnam via Doha, after he tested positive to ingestion of cocaine.
After four days under observation, Mbadugha egested a total of 88 wraps of the illicit drug, with a gross weight of 1.710 kilogrammes.
Another Onitsha-based businessman, Aligbo Chukwudi Jacob, was arrested by operatives following the seizure of a consignment of 1.20kg cannabis concealed in a package going to Dubai, UAE.
“Operatives at the MMIA Strategic Command of the Agency had intercepted the shipment at the export shed of the Lagos airport, while investigations revealed the cargo was sent through a courier company in Onitsha.
“After series of follow up operations, Aligbo was eventually arrested in Onitsha on Saturday, August 17.
